Re: [malware-list] [RFC 0/5] [TALPA] Intro to a linux interface for on access scanning

James Morris
2008-08-07T00:08:41Z

On Wed, 6 Aug 2008, David Wagner wrote:

> As I recall, the basic stats looked like this: about 30% of zero-day
> malware samples
> were detected on the first day they were released (and 70% weren't).
> The median number of days until a new malware sample was detected was
> about 40 days. If you wanted hundreds of days, asymptotically McAfee was
> able to detect about 70% of the samples (and 30% were never detected).
> I expect the situation to get worse in the future, not better.

This is similar to the stats published by AusCert a couple of years back
where they claimed that AV software failed to detect 80% of new malware:

<http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Eighty-percent-of-new-malware-defeats-antivirus/0,130061744,139263949,00.htm>

Interestingly, AusCert still describe up-to-date anti-virus software as
being "essential", per http://www.auscert.org.au/render.html?it=6891

In any case, the above relates to Windows desktops -- we are yet to see
a rationale for adding AV support to the Linux kernel.

- James
--
James Morris
<jmorris@namei.org>